Page 41

SEBASTIAN

Ishould have known we’d end up here.

It takes a moment for the sound of Antony’s voice to register. I’m too wrapped up in her, in the taste of her lips after so long, the softness of her body against mine, the wet heat between her thighs.God, she’s so fucking wet for me.My cock throbs, demanding that we focus on the desperate woman in front of me pleading for me to fuck her, to take her virginity, all but saying in the most blatant terms that she wants me to fuck her raw out here in the garden and send her back in to her suitors dripping with my cum.

Andfuck, if the most primal part of me doesn’t want to do just that. To be her first in every way, to lay claim to her, and send her back to them full of my cum, smelling of me, marked thoroughly byme. Maybe even fucking pregnant, so that she’ll havemychild and not theirs. Some animalistic part of me wants that, but the conscious part of my mind can’t fathom it.

I can’t imagine having her like that, making her mine, and then ever letting her go. I can’t imagine feeling her wrapped around me, coming inside of her when I’ve never fucked a woman without a condom before, taking her virginity when I’venever been anyone’s first, and then sending her back to another man.

Now it doesn’t matter, I realize, as everything comes back into focus. It doesn’t matter, because everything I was afraid of when I first started to toe this line with Estella has happened.

Her father has caught us, and now there’s going to be hell to pay.

“Don’t make me fucking say it again, Sinclair,” Antony growls. “Get your fucking hands off of her.”

He’s going to kill me for this,I think, and yet, with the taste of Estella still on my lips, bright and sharp with traces of champagne, I can’t bring myself to care—not for my own sake, at least. If I care, it’s because of her. Because with me dead, there will be no one to protect her like I will.

No one to love her like I do.

But it’s hard to regret kissing her. Not when I know what it feels like, now.

It feels like the kind of thing a man would die for.

“Sebastian.” Estella gasps my name as I pull back, and I look at her, burning her into my memory. Three years here—three years of working for Antony Gallo, of watching her, guarding her, and I never allowed myself to fully acknowledge how I felt until right now.

I lean in, my lips brushing her ear. “I’ve wanted this since the first day I walked into this house,” I whisper, as quickly as I can. And then I take two quick steps back, seeing the blood drain from Estella’s face as she takes in her father’s expression.

I know, as I hear the clatter of boots on the stones and see three other men approaching, that I’m going to remember this moment for whatever remains of my life. The look on Estella’s face, the way her mouth is still swollen and pink from my kisses, the scent of crushed roses and jasmine in the air. I’ll rememberit, and what came right before, and I’ll die wishing that I’d known what it felt like to have her completely.

I’ll die happy that I had any part of her at all.

I glance around, looking for Brick, but he’s nowhere to be seen. I’m grateful for that, at least—it would feel like a shitty choice, to ask Brick to betray his employer or participate in my death. The three men behind Antony are ones I barely know—he called for them on purpose, probably, to prevent any conflicts of interest.

“Dad,” Estella gasps, and Antony looks at her, his expression cold as ice.

“You have four suitors in that ballroom,” he says slowly, his voice measured and hard. “Four men of wealth, of influence, who want to marry you. And I find you out here in the garden instead of inside with them, tangled up with the fuckinghelp?” The words slice through the air between us. “With your fuckingbodyguard? I thought I raised you better than this, Estella Gallo, but so help me God?—”

“This is my fault,” I cut in, and Estella gasps. I hadn’t thought Antony’s expression could get any icier, but when I interrupt him, his eyes turn sharp as broken glass. “I take full responsibility,” I continue quickly, but he cuts me off before I can say anything further.

“Oh, I have no doubt whose fucking fault it is, boy,” Antony snaps. He looks back at Estella, who is trembling now, looking between me and her father with terror in her eyes. “You will go back inside, Estella. You will personally apologize to each of your suitors for your absence, and beg a headache. And then you will go upstairs to your room, and you willnotcome down again until I’ve spoken with you. Do you understand me?”

“Please, Dad—” she starts to beg, and Antony takes one step forward, his jaw clenching. For one brief, horrifying moment, I think he’s going to hit her, and I know that there’s no way I canstomach it. That if he touches her, I’ll attack the fucking don of the New York mafia, and I won’t be able to stop myself. I’ll die in front of Estella, cut down by his men, and she’ll remember that for the rest of her life.

“Now!” he shouts in her face, and Estella flinches, cowering back away from him as she does. She moves to one side to go around him, glancing back at me with an expression full of fear, and Antony grabs her arm as she passes. He leans down, whispering something in her ear, and I see any remaining blood drain from her face as tears spring into her eyes.

She looks at me once more, tears dripping from her lashes, and then she turns and flees back toward the house.

I can’t blame her for leaving. It would do her no good to stay, and it would only make things worse—for her and for me. But my chest aches as I watch her go, knowing it will be the last time I ever see her.

Antony turns back to look at me, and there’s silence for a long moment. I swallow hard, standing my ground as Antony and his three men come closer, even as every instinct in my body screams at me to flee. But even if I did, where would I run to?

There’s nowhere in this city I could go to escape Antony Gallo. Maybe not anywhere else, either.

And I can’t leave Estella, even if I wanted to try. Not now, not until my last breath.

I made her a promise, and one way or another, I’m going to keep it.

“Three years,” Antony bites out, his furious gaze fixed on me. “For three years, I’ve entrusted you with my most precious possession. I allowed you to stay in my home, compensated you handsomely, gave you everything you might need or want. And this is how you repay me?” His jaw clenches. “By putting your filthy fucking hands on my daughter?”